Potters in Iznik, Turkey, admired Chinese porcelain but worked in fritware, an entirely different ceramic body which provided a bright white ground suitable for elaborate underglaze decoration. The four-color design on this plate merges Chinese motifs such as the wave-and-scroll pattern with depictions of native Turkish plants—tulips, carnations, and hyacinths. The serrated saz (reed pen) dominating the middle of the plate and the surrounding blossoms reflect the influence of pen drawing as practiced by painters for the Ottoman court on Iznik ceramic designs.

By the mid-sixteenth century, Turkish potters at Iznik (southeast of Istanbul) were able to create ceramics in a four-color palette of red, green, turquoise, and cobalt blue. Inspired by Chinese porcelain but in technique completely different, wares with innovative designs in the Turkish taste merged Chinese motifs such as the wave-and-scroll pattern with depictions of native Turkish plants—tulips, carnations, and hyacinths—seen on this plate’s central area. The serrated saz (reed-pen) leaf dominating the middle of the plate and the surrounding blossoms reflect the influence of pen drawing practiced at the Ottoman court’s painting workshop on Iznik ceramic designs.

Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. “Selected Works”. Providence: Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, 2008.

Bonde, Sheila, and Aimée Froom, “Glimpses of Grandeur: Courtly Arts of the Later Islamic Empires, September 24- December 26, 1999)”. Exhibition Notes (Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design) 8 (Fall 1999)